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Home » Segments » Awesome, Awful, and Semantic Drift

Awesome, Awful, and Semantic Drift

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Lawrence from San Antonio, Texas, wonders if is a factor in the different meanings of awful, which describes something , and awesome, which describes something positive. Spelling doesn’t come into play here; in fact, for years the word awful was actually spelled with an e after the w. The in these words is the result of what call semantic drift. Something similar happened with the words , terrific, and terrible. This is part of a complete episode.

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